Score: B+

I didn’t think an episode that focused heavily on Ellee getting her first pair of shoes would be so entertaining! It was a memorable episode for a variety of reasons. And it does move the focus back to Skyland for some amount of time. I guess we’ll see how they plan on handling things. It would make sense to have them stay in Skyland for at least several episodes. Although Mashiro needing to get back does throw a wrench into that idea. Honestly, I can’t see her just going home for a while and having Sora and Tsubasa manage the defense of Ellee without her. But there are a couple of ways this could play out. So it’s just a matter of waiting a bit to see what happens.

Some tears now, but perhaps more later

In some ways it does make me think back to Maho Girls. That was a show that also had two worlds to jump between and the leads having a tough potential farewell. I’d say that show had a bigger emotional punch since it was more about them and had even more compelling emotions. But this still did a good job. And right now, the emotions aren’t fully going to land since Mashiro is momentarily going with Sora and Tsubasa. If she must go home by herself that will make things more interesting. But for now, the real farewell hasn’t happened.

Right now, there isn’t a clear reason for Ellee not to stay in Skyland. It is her home after all and her family is there. Even if the castle guard doesn’t seem particularly useful, they could serve as meat shields! So that does make things tricky. Sora and Tsubasa are from there anyways and I’m sure the royal family can manage to give them a place to live in the castle until this situation is resolved. The big issue is Mashiro. Someone that kind of has a life back on Earth. I say kind of, since Mashiro’s school has barely been a focus in this show. You could be convinced she doesn’t go to school at all if you missed the episode about Sora wanting to go there so not to be apart from Mashiro. But in theory Mashiro can’t just stick around.

Onward to Skyland!

So, the story has a couple of options. They could just send Ellee and the others back to Earth. There’s a fair point to be made that they need all the Precure together to keep Ellee safe. And if Mashiro can’t live in Skyland, then…it’s more reasonable to let Sora and Tsubasa (who don’t need to be in Skyland right now) to live on Earth and keep Ellee safe there. It’d be rough on the family, but it would be a reasonable option from a purely tactical point of view.

Now maybe they go in a surprising direction and have Mashiro stay. Maybe go the Inuyasha approach and have Yoyo say Mashiro is sick…for quite a while. I’m sure they can buy some time here. Mashiro may have believed that she could pop back and forth between worlds, but I doubt it’s that convenient. Whichever side she’s on when that portal closes might be the side she’s on for weeks until Yoyo can open it back up again. We could easily see an attack in Skyland keep Mashiro from being able to go home in time and her being stuck there. That would allow good character moments as they explore Skyland.

She wants her shoes!

I’m going to be honest. Ellee’s shoe shopping made me think “yep this girl is royalty.” That kind of stubborn “I want what I want” attitude just screams royal Princess. It also screams “kid” but I felt it more on the Princess side of it. Ellee never matured in this episode. They kept her refreshingly consistent. She didn’t like all those other shoes and wanted that specific pair! And she was going to be stubborn until the other side gave into her demands. If they didn’t find those shoes for her…it would have been a mess. It’s fine to let a child be a child. And they did that in this case. She felt legitimate at that moment even if of course that put everyone in a tight spot.

The Precure Taxi comes to you!

The Precure Taxi maneuver in this episode was the real highlight. It was hilarious having them transform and try to get that woman to the airport in time. I’m not sure that jumping maneuver was getting them there any faster (since Prism could catch up to boost Sky again). But will just presume that the woman was slowing her down just enough that this was the fastest way to travel. It was worth it since they didn’t have anyone to fight this week and didn’t have to force in a fight. Instead, they just tried to help a nice lady go and see her family before they fly out. It was silly, fun, and perfect.

All this from a shoe episode!

Now we get to see how the story will play out from here. We must presume the enemy will make their next move. The show isn’t going to go many weeks without a fight after all. But the immediate future of the show is up in the air. It doesn’t seem as if we’re racing towards adding our next Precure to the team. It’ll be interesting to see if the attacks escalate now that the main cast are in Skyland. I can’t imagine they had reason to hold back on Earth though. The next episode or two will define where we go in terms of the next enemy general and how much time we will spend in Skyland. I’m curious to see how this goes.